


look this way and say "i love you"

by ursus_mari



Series: fighting evil by the moonlight [1]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, Oblivious Merlin (Merlin), because i am nothing if not predictable, i'm pretty sure magical girls/boys/others aren't supposed to curse this much but y'know what, magical girl cliches abound, merlin is just really stressed okay, they're so dumb y'all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:13:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27959726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ursus_mari/pseuds/ursus_mari
Summary: In which Merlin is a superhero just trying to do his job, convinced the school's golden boy is onto him, and Arthur is just trying to ask his crush out before winter break.
Relationships: Gwen/Morgana (background), Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Series: fighting evil by the moonlight [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2112660
Comments: 23
Kudos: 163
Collections: Merlin Holidays 2020





	look this way and say "i love you"

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bunnysworld](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bunnysworld/gifts).



> So, this is slightly off of what you asked for, but I tried to hit as many of your likes as I could, so I hope you enjoy it anyway! Um. I hope you like teenagers being dumbasses for 10k words.
> 
> My betas @kingdowager and @gayfirebender on tumblr were absolutely lovely despite the fact that I asked two days before the deadline. Thank you, I love y'all so much.
> 
> The T rating is for language, and the title is from the Cardcaptor Sakura theme for reasons.

What with a surge of villain activity, the teachers’ determination to assign as much work as possible before their poor suffering students were released from their grasp, and Arthur Pendragon, darling son of the headmaster and prat extraordinaire, suspiciously trailing after him, Merlin was seriously stressed. 

Christmastime was supposed to be _relaxing and fun_. (Not that Merlin celebrated; he and his mum were Jewish, and Uncle Gaius was pagan, but the point stood.) Instead, the closer the holiday got, the more running around Merlin had to do. Bloody unfair, that.

Whether it was defeating the monster of the day (the High Priestess was annoyingly persistent), rushing to get to a test on time and not suffer another tardy at Professor Geoffrey’s gleeful hands, or ducking around a corner to lose Pendragon’s increasingly unshakable tail, there was always something to keep him making like a headless chicken. And if it wasn’t any of those things, Killy had him running around on rooftops practicing his magic or looking for some sort of “Golden King” said to be necessary to defeat the High Priestess once and for all. He was tired. He was annoyed. He wanted break to just start already so two of those nuisances would disappear for a blissful two weeks.

But first, the Afanc.

This one was particularly disgusting, made of mud and dripping all over the place. It was also contaminating the water and making the whole city sick. Merlin hated his job.

He ducked a glob of (probably deadly) mud flung at him and cursed. “Killy, Killy, what do I do? None of my usual attacks are working and I can’t get to the mark when it just grows back around it! I know you can hear me, you cryptic lizard.”

A rumbling voice sounded in his ear. “ _Kilgharrah_ , Emrys. My name is Kilgharrah.”

“Killy, Kilgharrah, whatever, _help me_.”

“Use the elements at your disposal.”

“I said be helpful! That was not helpful!”

Merlin fled a wave of black water and cursed stupid dragons and their stupid allergies to being straightforward even once in their absurdly long lives. He thought bitterly that perhaps honesty made them deadly ill, but mostly he suspected Killy just enjoyed watching him struggle.

“If you would just use your brain…”

“Dammit, Killy!”

“ _Kilgharrah_.”

Fine, so Killy wasn’t going to help anymore. Whatever. Merlin considered the hint he’d been given. _Elements_. The periodic table? Fuck, chemistry was boring and he’d never been able to keep any of the stupid things in his head. He had no idea how that would help him, either. 

Another glob of mud was dodged neatly (see: with much flailing and foul language) while Merlin pondered this predicament.

What other things involved elements?

“Oi! Emrys! Will you wrap this up already?!”

Merlin groaned and cursed the blond _idiot_ currently standing directly within the danger zone. “Get out of here, you idiot!”

“I’d love to, but your little fight is blocking my way!”

Had Merlin mentioned that he hated his job? Because he fucking _hated_ his job and the stupid ~~ly gorgeous~~ prat who had taken to recklessly endangering his own life because his stupid father thought Emrys was a whackjob. _Ugh_.

Said prat was currently directly in the path of one of the Afanc’s mudbombs, and Merlin raced to pull him out of the way. He ended up pinning Pendragon to the wall they were hiding behind and glaring at the fool. “Stop making my job harder!”

Pendragon laughed a bit hysterically. “Like you need any help in that area.”

A fast approaching roar had them both fleeing to the other side of the courtyard. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about elements, would you?” Merlin asked breathlessly.

Pendragon blinked then dodged with a curse. “What, like only-the-Avatar-can-master-them-all elements?”

Merlin beamed. How had he missed that??? “You’re a genius!” Then, noting the approaching wave, he wrapped his arms around Pendragon’s waist, doing his best to ignore the proximity and warm breath ghosting over his face and said, “Hold tight!”

“What--”

The question dropped into a scream Merlin knew Pendragon would deny til his dying day as Merlin launched them both to the nearest rooftop. Which happened to be the school’s. Handy, that. “Can you get down from here?”

“I think so-- What the hell?!”

“Then go!” Merlin stepped towards the edge and then fell backwards. “And stop getting in the way, dammit!”

“Emrys!”

Merlin whooped as he pulled out of free fall. If there was one perk to this Emrys business, it was getting to fly.

Elements, of course, the Afanc was using water and earth. So, air and fire, then.

The Afanc roared and grew in size, but it was okay now that Merlin knew what to do. Merlin dodged a clumsy swipe with another whoop and called on the magic that had made its home in him the minute he touched that damn book and freed the damn Priestess. The word coming unbidden from the depths of his mind, he whispered, “ _forbærne_ ,” and watched gleefully as the monster crumbled to ash.

He caught the token in midair before it could fade away and felt it neutralize in his hands; the world rippled around him and everything returned to its proper place, whole and only minorly muddy. The sick people would be getting better right about now as well, thank god. As always, the token was marked with the High Priestess’s sigil. Killy insisted that collecting these tokens was essential to taking her down but, as usual, refused to explain how.

Damn dragon.

Still, Merlin found a secluded corner to detransform out of the stupid skintight suit and tucked it into his bag. He looked at his watch and cursed when he realized he only had five minutes to get to the school and into Geoffrey’s class or suffer another detention and have to explain to his mum again why he was always late. It’s not like he could say _sorry I keep missing class, I was out fighting mud monsters_.

He determined the window to be the quickest route and used a bit of his latent Emrys power to boost him up, pleased to note Geoffrey was watching the door intensely rather than looking out into the room, no doubt savoring the chance to catch him. He climbed through the window closest to his seat (he’d chosen a window seat in the back of the room for this very reason) and slid into his seat as quietly as he could. 

No one noticed but Pendragon, who didn’t seem at all ruffled by having just gotten in the middle of a magical fight, the bastard. Merlin thought Pendragon would turn him in for sure, but Pendragon just raised his eyebrows and turned back to the front of the room, where Geoffrey was locking the door with an enthusiasm Merlin found entirely unreasonable.

“Alright!” Geoffrey said with glee, clapping his hands. That was just unnatural, that was. “Attendance! Just for fun, why don’t we go from Z-A?” Just for fun Merlin’s _arse_. But the expression on Geoffrey’s face was sure to be priceless, so there was that. “First, who do we have… ah! Wyllt, Merlin? Absent, I see, how unfortunate…”

“Here, Professor,” Merlin called. Several of his classmates did a double take, but those were nothing on the sheer gobsmacked expression on Geoffrey’s face. Merlin tried his best to look as innocent as possible.

He thought he heard a snort from the front of the class. Pendragon had a hand clasped over his mouth and his shoulders were shaking (very subtly, of course, nothing less from Camelot’s golden boy). Well, at least one of them was having fun.

Geoffrey ground his teeth together and marked Merlin present with so much force he almost tore the paper. He scowled at the list as if trying to set it on fire with the force of his gaze, but eventually he reluctantly said, “Alright, next, Valiant, Michael…”

Gwen leaned over and whispered to Merlin, “How do you _do_ that?”

“A magician never reveals his secrets,” Merlin whispered back. Gwen made a face at him.

“Magic’s right, I was sure you were going to get written up this time.”

She had no idea how right she was. Pendragon was sending the two of them furtive glances, though, so Merlin shushed Gwen and went back to doodling in his notebook. This was going to be a long, boring class.

Geoffrey was already glaring at them all, clearly weighing how much homework he could assign as punishment for Merlin’s evasion without getting in trouble. Great.

As if Merlin didn’t have little enough free time as it was.

* * *

Merlin begged off lunch with Gwen at that new cafe on the basis of promising to eat with his mum today. Actually, he had to put the token in the special box Killy said would prevent the High Priestess from tracking him down. Sometimes keeping them on him during class or other obligations was unavoidable, but it was always best to get them squared away as soon as possible.

As he went to leave, though, Arthur Pendragon cornered him. Oh, fuck.

“Pendragon,” Merlin greeted weakly.

“Wyllt.” Pendragon was giving him an oddly intense look, and Merlin swallowed down a panic. If anyone was onto him, it was Pendragon. He’d just seen Merlin fight the Afanc as Emrys, seen him fly, for god’s sake, and then noticed him coming through the window. He was also the _worst_ possible person to potentially discover his secret; his father was pretty vocal about how he felt about Emrys, after all. Oh, bugger.

After a minute of silence, Merlin said, “Can I help you with something, orrr…”

“What are you doing during lunch period?” Pendragon still looked pretty determined, oh hell.

“Nothing!” Merlin yelped.

“Nothing,” Pendragon repeated. He looked as if he was about to ask Merlin a question, and you know what, Merlin couldn’t deal with intimidatingly attractive people cornering him against walls and potentially knowing his secret. His heart could only take so much.

“Actually, I promised my mum I’d eat with her, and I’ll be late if I don’t go now, so…” Merlin awkwardly gestured toward the entrance.

“Right,” said Pendragon, looking oddly crestfallen. “Of course.”

Merlin laughed awkwardly, hefted his bag further up on his shoulder, and said, “See you around, Pendragon.”

Pendragon’s face fell even more. “Bye, Merlin.”

Merlin blinked at the use of his first name, but he didn’t think about it too hard as he made his escape.

He turned to look back once more as he left, and found Pendragon having an intense and secretive conversation with the intimidatingly gorgeous Morgana le Fay. le Fay gestured in Merlin’s direction while seemingly scolding her brother. Merlin’s heart sank even further, and he resolved to be more careful in the future. (And maybe spend less time finding excuses to be in the same room as Pendragon so he could subtly stare. Though he didn’t have to work too hard at it usually as of late, so maybe active avoidance was the way to go.)

He stormed into Gaius’s house, calling out a distracted greeting and making a beeline for the basement. Gaius was well used to this strange behaviour by now, and he only grunted from where he was studying a sample at what was allegedly his dining room table but mostly got used as a home for all of his experiments. Hunith scolded him something terrible when she came ‘round, but the table never really got any cleaner.

The basement was a different sort of clutter entirely.

Old books were stuffed into shelves and stacked in corners and on every available surface in a system that only made sense to Gaius and, by sheer necessity, Merlin. Merlin pulled the box from its hidden alcove, which also contained The Book. He had built up a decent collection of the tokens, all a different shape, color, and texture, but he still had no idea what they did. He placed today’s (smooth, white, and egg-shaped) neatly among the rest and then firmly closed the box.

“Are you sure you won’t tell me why I have to collect these?” he said to the seemingly empty room.

A tiny little dragon with furiously flapping little wings flew out of Merlin’s bag. “I will tell you when it is time for you to know.” His voice got so much higher when he wasn’t manifesting Merlin’s protective gear and helping to control and channel the Emrys power. It was kind of hilarious.

Merlin scowled halfheartedly. Killy always said that. “You’re a cryptic bastard, you know that? You have no right to be as cute as you are.”

“I am not cute!” 

Merlin snorted and tickled Killy’s belly. “Yes, you are, you little grump.”

“I will incinerate you.”

“You don’t have the power right now and you know it.”

Killy huffed as large a flame as he could manage (not very) in Merlin’s direction, and flew off to sulk with his favorite book. No doubt looking longingly at the pictures of the fearsome giants of dragons with scarily long and sharp claws and teeth and the capability for white hot blazes that could raze a whole field of crops in a single breath.

Merlin settled into the familiar silence and smell of ink, parchment, and dust, and started in on his homework while eating the emergency lunch he’d learned to always pack. Might as well make use of the time.

* * *

Gwen frowned at him before class the next day as he was, for once, on time. “Why don’t you ever hang out with me anymore?”

Merlin grimaced. He hadn’t meant to avoid her, and he wanted to hang out with his best friend, but he just had so little time… “I’m sorry, I’ve just been so busy lately.”

“We’ve got a good amount of work, sure, but I hardly ever see you!” Gwen pouted at him. “I’m worried.”

“Look, I’ll make it up to you,” Merlin said hurriedly. He _hated_ making Gwen upset. “We can have lunch together today, yeah? Try that cafe?”

Gwen beamed at him, and Merlin felt even more guilty for not being able to spend time with her as of late. He was a terrible friend, wasn’t he?

He noticed Pendragon looking back at them, but he turned away quickly as soon as Merlin met his eyes. That was… odd. And worrying, given Merlin’s recent suspicions that Pendragon had suspicions.

Gwen nudged him in the ribs. “What’s that about?”

“No clue,” Merlin said, ducking his head to focus solely on the pattern taking shape under his pen. It looked suspiciously like Pendragon’s face. Merlin scribbled it out with a scowl. When he glanced up again, Pendragon’s head was snapping quickly back to the front and the back of his neck and his ears were red. Damn, he was cute. And onto Merlin. Fuck.

“Sure,” Gwen said, looking far too amused. “It’s a real mystery.”

Merlin just blinked at her. “What?”

“Merlin. Tell me you know.” Gwen put a hand on his shoulder, trying her very hardest to look serious, but her mouth kept twitching up at the corners. “Tell me you’re just playing dumb.”

Merlin _was_ playing dumb, but Gwen shouldn’t have any idea what this was about??? “I don’t-- what?”

Gwen snickered a little, and said, “Never mind. You’ll figure it out eventually.” Did _Gwen_ know he was Emrys? What was with everyone suddenly knowing something?

“Gwen, I--”

“Shh,” Gwen whispered. “Class is starting.” 

Merlin scowled at her and attempted to get her to talk/have her secrets downloaded directly to his brain by way of glaring as much as he could. It was no good, though. Gwen was already starting her art class routine of staring dreamily at the back of Morgana le Fay’s head.

“Mr. Wyllt,” a smooth, lilting voice interrupted his glaring. Merlin jumped in his seat and looked guiltily up at Professor Nim. She sent him a little smile and said, “I see you’re paying full attention to my lecture. So much attention, in fact, that you missed the fact that we moved on to application five minutes ago.”

Merlin felt himself blush to the tips of his (unfortunately large) ears. “Sorry, Professor.”

Her laugh sounded a little like chimes, Merlin thought dreamily. “All I ask is that you pay a bit more attention. You’re usually one of my best students, after all.”

“Yes, Professor. Thank you.” Merlin watched her go with a lovelorn sigh and marveled at just how _pretty_ she was. Why couldn’t all of their teachers be so nice to look at? And nice and charming to boot?

“You’re drooling,” Gwen muttered, elbowing him a bit harder than necessary. Merlin shook himself free of what Gwen called the Nim trance, mind oddly fuzzy, and glanced around the room in hopes of getting a clue as to their assignment. Pendragon was glaring rather intensely at Professor Nim. Merlin frowned, and chalked it up to general prattishness and bad taste. Professor Nim was absolutely lovely, everyone knew that.

“What are we doing?”

Gwen scowled at him. “Do I look like I know? You know I’m rubbish at art.”

“Please, I’ve seen your metalwork.”

“That’s different and you know it,” Gwen grumbled. “Anyway, you’re the one who’s supposed to tell me what’s going on, not the other way around. S’pose you were too busy mooning over Pendragon.”

“I-- I was _not_ \--” Merlin shut his mouth with a click at yet _another_ glance from Pendragon. What the heck?

“Sure you weren’t,” Gwen muttered, then went back to doodling circuits in the margins of the handout.

* * *

As it happened, Merlin’s plan of avoiding Pendragon and his intense looks was quickly dashed when he and Gwen walked into The Rising Sun and le Fay and Pendragon were already seated at a table inside.

“Merlin!” le Fay called. Merlin blanched. He’d never had a conversation with Morgana le Fay in his life; they were definitely onto him. Pendragon’s head was buried in his arms, which was rather cute, really, and his hair looked distractingly soft and ruffled-- no! Focus! Secret keeping!

“Er, hello,” Merlin said awkwardly. Gwen was clutching his wrist rather tightly, and he fought not to grimace.

“Sit with us, will you?” Oh, no. le Fay patted the seat next to her. “Gwen can sit here, and you can join Arthur over there.” Nope nope nope nope this was not happening. Gwen’s rather tight grip became a stranglehold.

“Of course,” Gwen squeaked, sliding gingerly into the seat next to le Fay.

Merlin glumly followed her lead, furtively massaging his poor abused wrist and doing his level best to not make eye contact with either sibling. This resulted in he and Gwen making increasingly panicked faces at each other across the table while le Fay watched them with amusement.

“What do you want?” le Fay asked, rising smoothly from her seat. “I’ll just order for us all, shall I?”

“Oh, no, you don’t have to--”

“I want to,” le Fay said, shutting Gwen up with a winning grin.

“le Fay, really--”

“Morgana, please.” Morgana pouted at Merlin. “All this last name business is dreadfully formal, isn’t it? I’d like for us to be friends.”

Right when her brother started trying to uncover Merlin’s secret and Merlin hadn’t ever even had a conversation with the girl? Not likely. Still, he tried his best to smile convincingly. “Morgana, then. That’s really not necessary.”

“Nonsense!” Morgana looked at them expectantly, as if arguing the matter further was out of the question, and Merlin reluctantly gave in. No reason to stand out too much if he can help it.

“Alright,” he said grudgingly.

Merlin and Gwen gave Morgana their orders and had another brief argument about payment, and Arthur emerged from his arms (was he tired, perhaps?) long enough to tell Morgana what he wanted. Morgana, having gotten her way thoroughly, flounced off to order and pay, and left a very awkward table of three in her wake.

“So,” Merlin started after an agonizingly long silence and four increasingly frantic looks from Gwen. “Pendragon.”

“Arthur,” Pendragon ( _Arthur_ ) said sharply. He drew himself up ramrod straight. “Please. What she said goes for me too.”

Well, he was certainly doing a fantastic job of showing it. Friendship indeed, Arthur had barely looked at him all through the time they’d been sitting there.

“Gwen,” Gwen offered when Merlin took too long to respond.

“Merlin,” Merlin said reluctantly. “But you already knew that, I suppose.”

Arthur choked. “Wh--what?”

“We’ve-- we’ve been in the same class since first year--” _and you’ve been keeping way too close an eye on me recently_ , Merlin thought grimly-- ”so I figured you knew? And you used it yesterday.”

“Right.” Arthur gave him a strained smile. “Of course.” Wow, he was rubbish at this. It kind of hurt. Was pretending to want to be friends with Merlin that bad?

Gwen just looked amused now that the tension had eased a little, damn her.

Merlin felt a sadistic satisfaction in watching her go red when Morgana sat down next to her.

Lunch ran along smoothly if not comfortably after that, though there was entirely too much pointed questioning about Merlin’s free time for comfort. Arthur stayed mostly quiet, gaze set firmly out the window. He made an attractive picture like that, certainly. It also made Merlin want to taunt him until he actually looked at them (him). Gwen stayed rather flushed and rambly throughout, but Morgana kept looking at her like she was precious, so clearly Gwen was having more luck than Merlin in that regard. To be fair, her crush wasn’t the prattish one. Kind of terrifying, sure, but not prattish. Morgana was just gaining steam in her interrogation--

“Are you free on weekend afternoons? Mornings? How about after school? What do you like to do?”

\--when the sound of screams reached them. _Fuck_. Two days in a row? The High Priestess really was determined to make his life as difficult as possible.

“Sorry,” Merlin said abruptly. “I have to go, I promised my Uncle Gaius I’d stop by.”

“Merlin, we only have 15 minutes--”

“Then I’ll head back to school. Get started on some homework.” Merlin offered them the best smile he could summon on short notice and made to bolt.

He was stopped by a hand around his wrist (thankfully not the sore and likely bruised one). “Merlin, wait, you can’t go out there, it’s dangerous,” Arthur said, that intense look back on his face again. All at once, Merlin was reminded that the people he was eating lunch with were trying to expose him and his secrets.

Merlin pulled himself free, and tried to come up with a nonsuspicious reason to go out there. “I know, but I’m--” why were they all looking at him??? Did they have any idea how bloody stressful that was?-- “I’m worried about my mum. And my Uncle. These things, they can cause real destruction sometimes before Emrys fixes it, and--”

“All the more reason to not go out!” Arthur insisted, fists clenched. “You could get yourself killed!”

No, but a whole bunch of people might get hurt if he couldn’t get out there. The physical wounds might disappear when the Afanc was gone, but the memory of the pain would stay. Merlin would rather save as many people from that as he could. “Thanks for the concern, Pendragon,” Arthur recoiled like Merlin had slapped him, “but I can handle myself. There are others that can’t.”

With that, he marched out the door, relieved to have gotten free even if he might have given too much away. But before he could find an appropriately secluded spot, the bell rung behind him and Arthur fucking Pendragon himself burst though the door. Dammit, did the boy never give up? Surely he at least suspected Merlin had an important obligation at the moment?

“I’m coming with you.”

Oh, for fuck’s sake. Now was not the time for Arthur’s investigation. Merlin looked impatiently toward the distant (though increasingly less so) white beams and… horse whinnying? He’d worry about that bit later. “I’m touched that you’re concerned, but there’s not much you can do to protect me out here. And for the last time, I _can_ look after myself.”

Arthur ran a hand through his hair, which was annoyingly attractive, the bastard, and gave Merlin this pleading, vulnerable look that made him look all soft. Oh, fuck Merlin’s taste in crushes, he just had to go for the prattish one. “Merlin, please. Let me help.”

“It won’t make me any safer and it will put you in significantly more danger, no way in hell.” A white beam swept dangerously close to the cafe, and Merlin dragged Arthur out of the way with a curse. Why was he always doing that?

He pressed a palm to Arthur’s chest to push him against the wall and gave his most intimidating look. “Stay. Here.” Huh, Arthur’s face was going alarmingly red. Maybe Merlin should flee before he exploded in a rage.

Merlin took off at a run, ducking under a beam with practice if not grace, and quickly identified one of what he thought of as emergency corners. Not really hidden enough, but everything was chaotic enough and urgent enough with the latest Afanc that it didn’t really matter.

Killy breathed fire over the mark that had burned itself onto Merlin’s chest the moment he’d touched The Book, and Merlin felt the overwhelming power of Emrys surging freely through him.

Just in time, too, because a second later Arthur came barreling around the corner, the idiot, looking out of his mind with panic. “Merlin!” he called desperately. Damn, he must have been really desperate for evidence.

“I’ve told you to stay out of the way of Afancs,” Merlin said tartly.

Arthur jumped and spun around to regard him with wide eyes. “Emrys!”

Another beam swept through, and Merlin dragged them both out of harm’s way. “Yes,” he growled. Arthur went a little pink. He seemed to flush awfully easily, he should get that checked out. “And I’m getting really tired of having to save your stupid arse, so _get out_.”

“No, wait, have you seen--” Merlin turned to scowl at the idiot who just couldn’t take a hint. Arthur waved his hands around frantically in what might have been intended to be descriptive gestures. They were not. “--Have you seen a boy run through here? About my age, a little taller than me, dark hair, blue eyes?”

Oh, so they were playing this game. “Can’t say I have!” Merlin said brightly.

Arthur’s eyebrows scrunched together. He was _really_ determined to get that evidence. Merlin would be impressed if his identity weren’t on the line. “Please, he could be in danger--”

“I’m sure he ran _away_ from the Afanc,” Merlin said. “Y’know, like _someone sane_.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure,” Arthur muttered.

Merlin bristled. That was just uncalled for. “Arthur,” he said as firmly as he could. “I’m sure your friend is fine. Now _go_.”

Arthur swallowed. “Um. Right. Sorry.”

“That’s a first,” Merlin muttered, then louder, “Just get out of here, please, and into some sort of shelter.”

“Sure.” That was not encouraging.

But there was still an Afanc on the loose for Merlin to deal with and Arthur wasn’t being _actively_ reckless, so he tossed a, “Don’t do anything stupid!” (not likely, but he had to try) over his shoulder, and then went to go fight a _unicorn_.

A _unicorn_. That could _teleport_. And _shoot lasers_.

Fuck the High Priestess, honestly.

* * *

Merlin slipped into the school just before the period ended, detransforming in a tucked away hallway and sulking about his brand new black eye. Damn unicorn. And damn the reset for not affecting minor injuries. He was going to have to explain missing class and his injuries to his mother, too. Ugh.

The bell rang and Merlin winced. He wasn’t quite ready to face the masses and their inevitable curiosity. Unfortunately, the masses came to him, in the form of one Arthur Pendragon, aka the most persistent bastard on the planet. Merlin was both vindicated and horrified to see that Arthur hadn’t escaped this go ‘round either; he had a fairly deep cut above his eye.

“Missed you in math today,” Arthur said, leaning against the wall and raising an eyebrow. He had nothing on Gaius’s Eyebrow of Doom, though.

“Yeah,” Merlin said, cursing blond prats with pretty eyes and trying his best to not sound like he was doing just that. “Stayed at Gaius’s for a bit, helped clean up. Those rays got pretty close.” Not that they’d have done anything; Merlin had erected protective barriers around his house, Gaius’s house, the school, and Gwen’s house as soon as he’d been able to pester how to out of Killy. Damn dragon. Just because they’d go back didn’t mean the damage didn’t have consequences.

“Pretty nasty black eye,” Arthur said softly and raised a hand to trace it. Merlin fought the urge to flinch away and lean into the touch simultaneously, which resulted in an odd sort of shudder. Arthur dropped his hand and stepped back apologetically. “Better get that treated.”

“I’m fine,” Merlin muttered, keeping an eye on the time. He had, what, five minutes before class? There was no time to visit the nurse and endure the questions of how he’d gotten the injury (hit in the face by flying rubble), what he’d been doing at the time (attempting to ride the unicorn), and why he’d been doing it (according to Killy it was necessary to _tame_ it; he’d have appreciated the memo about the flowery harness that made it docile and biddable before he’d been thrown all over the city trying to calm the damn thing).

“If you won’t go to the nurse, will you let me help?” Arthur asked, looking unbearably earnest, and dammit, Merlin didn’t have defenses against an earnest Arthur. “Please?”

“Okay.” Merlin sighed and ducked his head.

Arthur rummaged in his bag for something and let out a triumphant noise when he pulled out bruise cream (oh god he was so cute Merlin was going to _die_ ).

An important question remained, though. “Why do you carry around bruise cream?”

Arthur flushed (again: Merlin? Dead on the floor). “I like to be prepared.” Of course he did. Arthur gave him a little crooked smile (dead dead dead holy fuck) and tilted Merlin’s chin up with a careful hand (DEAD. D. E. A. D.). “Keep your head like that, yeah?”

“Okay,” Merlin squeaked around the all around Arthur overload that was kind of short circuiting his brain at the moment.

Arthur’s hand returned to his chin (His insides were imploding. His brain was on red alert. This was a crisis, really), and he spread the salve around Merlin’s eye with gentle fingers (hghhhghghgh). He turned Merlin’s head this way then that, then let go with a pleased little smile (kill him now, please, let his poor heart rest). “All set. See you in class?”

“Yep,” Merlin squeaked, waving stupidly. Once Arthur had turned the corner, he put his head in his hands (careful of his eye; after all… _that_ , it seemed in poor taste to mess it up) and screamed as quietly as he could.

“You‘re going to be late again, you know,” came Killy’s dry voice. “And for the record, that was the stupidest thing I have ever witnessed in my very long life.”

Merlin jumped and looked at the clock with a curse, then hissed at Killy, “Get back into my bag and out of sight, do you want me to get caught?”

“Fine,” the dragon sniffed. “But I want peppers.”

“Yes, yes, I’ll give you your spicy peppers--”

“The time, Emrys.”

“Oh, FUCK!”

* * *

“So,” Morgana said, sitting herself in front of Gwen and Merlin. An aloof Arthur trailed in her wake. “Arthur and I are going to the market on Saturday. We were wondering if you wanted to come with?”

Gwen squeaked. “Um,” Merlin said, still wondering why the hell these two were so persistent. If it was Emrys related… what was he thinking, of course it was. There was no other explanation for their strange behaviour.

“Yes!” Gwen blurted. “We’d love to!”

Merlin blanched. “Actually I’m busy--”

“No he’s not!” Gwen elbowed him in the side. “We’ll be there. What time?”

“11?” Morgana offered.

“Sounds great!” Gwen clapped her hands together, smiling herself silly. Merlin wished he could tell her why they were doing what they were so she didn’t get her heart broken.

“Yeah,” Merlin said, giving them a weak smile.

“Brilliant!” Morgana declared. “We’ll see you then.”

Gwen waited until the siblings were out of sight then punched Merlin in the shoulder.

“Ow!”

“Stop trying to wriggle out of time with them!” Gwen hissed. “Don’t you want to know them better? Know _Arthur_ better?”

Merlin scowled. “Arthur’s an arrogant prat.”

“A handsome arrogant prat who you’ve had a crush on since first year.” Merlin made a face at Gwen and she made a face right back. “Besides, you’re not leaving me alone with them. No way.”

“You’d be fine!”

“I’d embarrass myself even more!” Gwen poked him in the side and said, “You’re not getting out of this one, Wyllt. I’ll come to your house if I have to, don’t think I won’t. I’ll sic Elyan on you.”

“Fine! Fine!” Merlin batted her hand away. “I’ll go, alright?”

“Brilliant,” Gwen parroted Morgana, and leaned back with a self-satisfied smile.

Merlin struck his tongue out at her and stole her pencil case.

* * *

Merlin shivered, rubbing his hands together. “Where are they?” he complained.

Gwen shot him a look. She was one to judge, though, she had to be wearing at least three jackets, thick and cozy gloves, and a long, extremely soft scarf. Merlin told her this. “It’s not my fault you didn’t dress for the weather,” Gwen grumbled, but she passed over the scarf all the same. Merlin wrapped it around his neck and reveled in the warmth, wrapping his hands in the ends.

“Hey!” came a call from across the street. Morgana waved furiously.

Gwen grabbed Merlin’s hand and dragged him over. “Hi,” she said breathlessly.

“Hi!” Morgana responded brightly.

“Can we just go?” Arthur grumbled, kicking at the ground.

“Well, hello to you too,” Merlin said dryly. Arthur’s head shot up and he looked at Merlin apologetically.

“You’ll have to ignore him, he’s a perpetual pessimist and all around fun killer,” Morgana said cheerfully. “But shall we?”

Gwen and Morgana fell into step ahead, chattering away (Gwen was even managing to control her rambling, bless her), which left Merlin to awkwardly drop back to walk with Arthur.

“Erm,” Merlin started. “So, nice day, isn’t it?” Oh, god, he was making small talk about the weather.

“It’s too bloody cold,” Arthur grumbled, hands shoved firmly in his pockets.

“Yeah,” Merlin said, wincing. “But it’s sunny!”

Arthur grunted. “So it’s also too bright.”

“Are you ever happy?”

“Not when I’m freezing my bits off,” Arthur bit out.

Merlin couldn’t believe he was about to say this, but… “You might have been better off if you wore more than a fairly thin sweatshirt.”

Arthur looked like he was about to snap, but he caught himself and just muttered, “Probably.”

This was not going well.

“So, um, Merlin,” Arthur cleared his throat, “do you…”

Merlin just stared at him, baffled.

“Do you…” Arthur gestured a little, and Merlin stifled a smile at the sight. “What do you like to do?”

“What do I like to do?” Merlin repeated. Arthur went red and ducked his head. Was this more of his suspicion of Merlin?

“Yeah,” Arthur said gruffly, still not looking at Merlin.

Nothing that pointed to Emrys-ness then, okay… “Um, I like to draw?”

“Not--” Arthur scrubbed a hand through his hair, leaving it standing up at odd angles. “Like, go out to do?”

“Sorry?” Merlin said, hopelessly distracted by Arthur’s hair.

Arthur blew out a frustrated breath. “What do you like to go out to do? Or, do when you go out? I guess?”

“I don’t--” Merlin bit his lip and tamped down on the urge to reach out and smooth the wayward tufts down. “Your hair is--”

Arthur frowned. “My hair?”

“It’s--” Merlin attempted to point before realizing Arthur couldn’t see his own head. “Um, it’s sticking up.”

Arthur flushed furiously and reached up to fix it, but he only succeeded in making it worse.

“No, here, let me.” Merlin reached up before he could think better of it and coaxed Arthur’s hair into lying flat with careful fingers. Dammit, his hair was so _soft_ \--

Arthur made a strange noise, and Merlin abruptly realized what he was doing and took a step back. Arthur’s voice was slightly rough when he asked, “Is it better?”

Merlin felt his face heat. “Um, yeah. Sorry. What were you asking?”

“I--”

“Oi! Lovebirds! Get over here!” Morgana yelled. Merlin flushed and refused to make eye contact. 

Arthur stomped off toward his sister, roaring, “What?”

“Hot chocolate,” Morgana said brightly once Merlin had caught up, apparently unfazed by the daggers her brother was glaring at her. Merlin felt a twinge of hurt at how angry Arthur had gotten at the very idea of liking him. “I’ve heard it’s excellent.”

“And,” Gwen said, smirking a little, “it should be good for those of us who forgot to wear gloves.”

Merlin stuck his tongue out at her.

“We’ve already ordered, so they’ll have those ready in a moment,” Morgana said, glancing toward the stand. “Speaking of…”

“le Fay?” the vendor called.

“Damn prophet,” Arthur grumbled.

“Prophet?” Merlin asked.

“Morgana always seems to know what’s going to happen before it happens,” Arthur said, only slightly awkwardly. “She was very hard to beat at anything when we were little. Still is, really. And she’s so _smug_ about it.”

Gwen looked a bit lovestruck. “That’s really cool.”

“Please, nothing about Morgana is cool,” Arthur said much louder, directing it toward Morgana, who was approaching bearing to go cups.

“Careful, dear brother, I’m the one with the goods. Here,” Morgana handed Gwen a cup first, lingering a bit longer than necessary, “now, Merlin,” Merlin took the cup gratefully and sighed in pleasure at the heat on his frozen hands, “and mine. Oh, I seem to have an extra. Maybe I’ll just throw it out.”

Arthur scowled. “Mor _gan_ a.”

“What’s the magic word?” Morgana sang, holding the cup holder out of reach.

“‘gana, come on!” Arthur reached for the cup, but Morgana danced away, laughing.

“The magic word, Wart! I shan’t give it to you until you say the magic word!”

“Don’t call me that! Stop talking like Peeves!” Arthur missed again, then scowled, blowing his bangs off his forehead. “Fine, _please_.”

“There, now wasn’t that easy!” Morgana smugly handed over the cup, then took a sip of hers in victory.

Merlin looked at Gwen and found her also smiling herself silly. “Market?” Gwen prompted.

“Yes! Onward!” Morgana marched forward, and Gwen hurried to follow her with a smitten smile.

Merlin fell into step with Arthur easily this time. It was much harder to be wary of someone after you’d just seen them squabbling with their sibling. Arthur sulked into his hot chocolate, and Merlin fought off the stupidly fond expression he knew was threatening to break out over his face.

“Does that happen often?”

“All the time!” Arthur complained.

Merlin couldn’t help laughing, especially when Arthur sent him a betrayed look. “Gwen does that with her brother too,” Merlin offered. “They’re menaces, the two of them, and they’re even worse when they join forces.”

Arthur smiled a bit hesitantly. “I can’t really see Gwen being a menace.”

Merlin scoffed. “Don’t let her fool you.”

Arthur huffed a laugh, and said, “You guys seem pretty close.”

“We’ve been neighbors for most of our lives.” Merlin grinned. “We were so excited when we both got into Camelot.” Arthur ducked his head, and Merlin suddenly realized he’d probably never had to worry about that with his dad being the headmaster. He hastily changed the subject. “Um, what were you trying to ask me earlier?”

Arthur went a little pink. “It was. Uh. I was wondering. What you like to do when you go out?”

Merlin frowned for a moment as he attempted to parse out what Arthur was trying to ask. “Like when I hang out with friends?”

Arthur coughed. “Yeah. Something like that.”

Merlin blinked, considering. “Well, Gwen and I go out to eat a lot? We go to the movies sometimes, or the arcade. And we go shopping occasionally? Not really to buy anything, just to put on silly outfits and laugh at each other.”

“Okay,” Arthur said, looking quite focused on this information.

Merlin’s eyebrows furrowed. “Can I ask why…?”

Arthur jumped. “No reason!” Merlin gave him a baffled look, and he hastily backed up. “Well, it’s, um, good information to have, you know, on people that you want to…” He trailed off and gestured vaguely. “Yeah.”

Well, that was informative. Maybe it was related to the Emrys investigation? Merlin’s stomach sank. He couldn’t really see how that information could be useful, but there was no reason to not give Merlin an actual answer otherwise. “Right,” Merlin said, stuffing his hands in his pockets and looking at the ground.

“Why are you two so slow?” Gwen called from a decent way ahead of them.

“Yeah!” Morgana shouted. “Get your arses over here!”

Merlin took the excuse to escape gladly, hurrying to catch up without looking at Arthur.

From then on, Merlin made an effort to stay with the girls. Arthur shot him hurt and confused looks every so often, but Merlin did his best to ignore them. He wasn’t going to… he couldn’t feel so strongly about someone who was just looking to uncover his secret identity.

Merlin threw himself into exploring the market and having fun with his best friend and those who were well on their way to becoming quite good friends, he thought, and did his best not to notice the hollow knot of hurt that had grown in his chest.

* * *

If you’d have told Merlin a month ago that he and Gwen would regularly spend time with the Pendragon(/le Fay) siblings, he’d have laughed you out of the room.

Merlin today was still a little shocked.

But hang out they did. Morgana kidnapped them frequently to bring them to restaurants across the city during lunch, and more often than not they hung out on the weekends too.

Morgana was still terrifying, and Arthur was still a prat, of course, but those traits had softened from something Merlin was wary of to something that made him smile. It was one thing to crush on someone from afar; they weren’t something attainable, and you ended up filling in blanks of what you thought they might be like or what you might want them to be like. _Knowing_ someone, though, knowing someone was different. And Merlin liked the Arthur he was getting to know way more than he’d expected to. Dammit.

Merlin walked in step with Gwen and glared at the back of Arthur’s head as he bickered with Morgana, cursing him for being more damn lovable than his daydreams.

Gwen nudged him. “What’s up with you?”

Merlin just grumbled under his breath and glared harder.

“Arthur, then?” Gwen asked, voice thick with amusement.

“Hmm?” Arthur turned back and smiled at them. Merlin hated him _so_ much. Why was he so pretty? Who gave him the right? Who?? “Um, Merlin?”

Arthur’s smile faltered, and you know what, Merlin kind of hated his stupid heart too. “Sorry, just spacing.”

And now Arthur was giving him worried looks. Great.

A stall selling cheesy Christmas wear across the street tipped over with a crash. The frightened stallholder scrambled away, thankfully not too injured, as a grumbling roar arose from the wreckage. Gwen gripped Merlin’s hand tight, Morgana reached into her bag, and Arthur shoved the three of them behind him.

Merlin braced himself to defend his friends as a hulking figure rose up, resolving into…

Wool. The Afanc was literally made of soft bright red and green wool. It had “Happy Ho Ho Holidays!” printed in a warm, cheery yellow font across its chest.

A hysterical laugh escaped Merlin despite his best efforts.

Arthur shoved him away, shouting, “Run, you idiot,” (as if he was one to talk) as the Afanc launched what looked suspiciously like a giant ball of yarn at them, and Merlin reluctantly did as bid, following the girls as they ran to shelter. Arthur stayed at his back, pushing at his back if he slowed even a bit.

Escaping so he could fight the damn thing was going to be difficult, wasn’t it?

They caught up to Gwen and Morgana around the corner, both gasping for breath. This was way more work when he wasn’t Emrys. Gwen and Morgana were clearly anxious to get moving again.

“Arthur--” Morgana started.

Arthur waved one hand at her and kept one hand on Merlin’s back. Oh, dammit, he was probably trying to force Merlin to transform in front of him. “Go! We’ll catch up!”

“You should go with them,” Merlin rasped, putting on the rasp a little; it wouldn’t do him any good to look _too_ physically capable. (Not that his chest wasn’t currently burning. Because it was.)

Arthur scowled at him and grabbed his arm. “Are you crazy? You can barely breathe, I’m not leaving you!”

Why did he have to be so damn stubborn?

“Seriously, Arthur,” Merlin said, looking warily at the corner as if the yarn monster was hiding behind it. Which it could be, for all Merlin knew. No way in hell was he letting Arthur close to this thing, especially when he wasn’t capable of accessing his power without giving himself away.

“No!” Arthur yanked on Merlin’s arm, but Merlin dug his heels in stubbornly. Arthur ran a hand through his hair, clearly panicking. “Dammit, why are you so…” His eyes widened and he pushed Merlin down and out of the way.

Merlin looked up just in time to see Arthur get hit by a ball of yarn that didn’t seem quite so silly anymore. “Arthur!”

That monster was going to pay if Arthur had so much as a scrape, Merlin swore to god…

“What the hell?” Arthur complained, decidedly not injured, and Merlin stifled a completely inappropriate laugh.

It wasn’t every day you saw a scowling Arthur Pendragon wearing a bright red sweater declaring him “A GIFT TO THE WORLD.”

“Dammit, Merlin, stop laughing--” Arthur struggled against the sweater, which pinned his arms to his sides, and Merlin laughed harder. “ _Mer_ lin!”

“Okay, okay, sorry--” A laugh bubbled up again at the sight of Arthur’s disgruntled face. “Sorry, sorry, okay, um…”

“Get me out!”

Merlin tugged experimentally at the fabric, but it stubbornly refused to budge. “Okay, can you walk?”

Arthur scowled some more, and Merlin broke into giggles all over again when we saw the Afanc had also gifted Arthur with a knitted stocking. Pulled over both feet. That also refused to be removed, so Merlin gave a very wobbly Arthur a hand up.

“Um, can you get yourself over here? You should be pretty sheltered. I guess you can just, uh, hop.” Merlin cracked up again at the mental image. “Make like a bunny!”

Arthur gave Merlin a sour look and said, “Wrong holiday,” but grudgingly began hopping, steadfastly ignoring Merlin’s laughter.

As soon as Arthur was settled, Merlin registered the buildings around them strung with yarn and abruptly sobered. “I have to go.”

“What? No.” Arthur stared at him. “You can’t.”

“I have to.” Merlin bit his lip and studied the little alcove they’d managed to tuck Arthur into. “You’ll be safe enough here.”

“Merlin--” Arthur moved to grab him, but just fell over in the attempt.

“Sorry,” Merlin said, stepping quickly away. “You’ll be safe, I promise.”

Arthur looked at him as if he were mad. “I’m not worried about me!”

“Gwen and Morgana will be okay too.”

“You--”

“No, look, I really have to--”

A resounding crash sounded and Merlin ran toward it, ignoring Arthur’s shout of, “Merlin!”

A quick transformation out of sight, and Emrys was ready for action.

The fight was long but fairly painless. Merlin just had to get the Afanc to deplete its material, unravelling as it did, and then reach for the token when the Afanc had gotten small enough to destroy. He almost felt bad as he did it; the Afanc hadn’t been doing any harm, not really. Knitwear wasn’t a crime, especially not hilarious knitwear. It had caused quite a bit of chaos with its yarn, though. And they weren’t supposed to stay. They weren’t even meant to exist.

With the Afanc out of the way, Merlin went hunting for his friends. Arthur was gone from the alcove, which wasn’t too surprising. He found Morgana and Gwen taking shelter in a bakery, a decent number of sweets piled on the table in front of them. Once Merlin had badgered a couple of cookies out of the girls, the three of them went looking for Arthur, and found him looking quite stormy a couple of blocks away.

“You,” he said, stalking toward Merlin, “are a reckless _idiot_.” _Idiot_ was punctuated with a jab at Merlin’s chest.

“I’m fine!” Merlin protested. “They’re fine! You’re fine!”

“You could have gotten hurt!”

Merlin raised a brow and crossed his arms. “But I didn’t, did I?”

“You--” Arthur buried his head in his hands and said, “Ughhhhhhhhhhhh.”

Baffled and annoyed, Merlin stared at him. Was this about the Emrys thing again? Was it _really_ worth that level of aggravation?

“It is really too soon after a monster attack to deal with you two,” Morgana muttered, stomping between them. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I want to go home. And watch crappy TV or something.”

“Same,” Gwen sighed. “I want to faceplant into my comforter and stay there until my heart rate goes down.”

Merlin grabbed the opportunity to avoid Arthur in his weird mood. “Me too, actually. I’d like to visit my uncle’s.”

Arthur glared at him. “You--”

“Too soon!” Morgana shouted, a hand in each of their faces. “You can argue about it tomorrow at school.”

Gwen grabbed Merlin’s arm while Arthur was distracted and led him toward her car. “C’mon,” she muttered. “Before he starts up again.”

“You’re a lifesaver,” Merlin sighed.

Gwen shot him a sharp look. “I’m not happy with you either, to be clear. You can’t just go running into those fights.”

Merlin groaned and complained, “Can we just drop it?”

“For now,” Gwen muttered.

“I’ll take that.” Merlin relaxed back into the seat, savoring the warmth, and put Arthur and his confusing moods out of his mind.

* * *

“What do you guys think of Emrys?” Morgana asked one day, apropos of nothing. Merlin jumped at the sound of his name before remembering they didn’t _know_ he was Emrys. Though Arthur might, and sure enough, he was looking awfully suspicious, a little embarrassed and glaring at Morgana as if willing her to stay silent.

Gwen hummed around her straw before setting her drink down on the table. “I don’t know, I’m glad he’s around, if that’s what you mean. I don’t know where we’d be without him.”

“Merlin?”

Merlin thought Emrys should be allowed his privacy and not talked about outside fights, personally. “Um, he seems competent, if overworked.”

“Overworked?” Morgana asked, brows raised.

Merlin cursed himself for giving too much away. “Well, he’s got a life outside of fighting those things, doesn’t he?”

“I hadn’t thought about that, actually,” Morgana said, appearing thoughtful. Maybe she wasn’t in on Arthur’s investigation after all? Then a wicked grin appeared, and Merlin thought, _maybe not_. “How about you, Arthur? How do you feel about Emrys?”

“Nothing!” Arthur grumbled. “He takes too long to fight those things.”

Merlin opened his mouth, prepared to defend his honor.

“Arthur has a crush on Emrys,” Morgana said, leaning forward conspiratorially.

Arthur flushed, Gwen muffled a giggle with her hand, and Merlin blue-screened. “I do not!”

“You do! Why else would you keep going out of your way to get near those monster fights?”

Merlin blinked, his mind a mess of emotions and information, but he had enough sorted to realize that was a bad thing. He glared at Arthur and said, “You do what.”

“No!” Arthur said, panickedly looking first at Morgana, then Merlin. “No! Father asked me to!”

“Yeah, months ago, when Emrys first appeared,” Morgana scoffed, resting her chin in her palm. “He’s mostly given up on finding out who Emrys is by now. He still rants at the dinner table, of course, but that’s only because he can’t stand to be wrong.”

Arthur sputtered. “No-- I--”

“Admit it.”

Arthur heaved a dramatic sigh, slumping back in his chair. “Who wouldn’t?” he asked defensively.

“I don’t,” Morgana said, raising her hand. “I think he’s heroic and all that, but no thanks.”

“You don’t count, you don’t like men.”

“Alright, let’s ask someone who does.” Morgana smirked. “Gwen?”

Merlin… Merlin was not having a good time. He was pretty sure his face was actually on fire.

Gwen sent Arthur a little apologetic grimace. “Sorry.” Thank god.

“Oh, come on!”

“He’s just not my type,” Gwen defended, punctuating this declaration with a sip of her tea.

“Yes, that would be a certain Mr. Lancelot du Lac, wouldn’t it,” Merlin said, grinning and dodging when Gwen tried to hit him. This, he could do. Change of subject successful!

“That was last year! And you liked him too, you arse!”

“But I’m not the one who dated him,” Merlin sang. Gwen kicked him in the shin. “Ow!”

“Oh for two there, Wart,” Morgana said, smiling wickedly. Dammit. Change of subject not successful. “Shall we ask the third and final candidate?”

Arthur and Merlin stiffened in unison. Arthur started, “You don’t have to--”

Gwen stole a chip off of his plate and said, “Yeah, Merlin, let’s hear it.”

Merlin retaliated with a kick in the shin that made her flinch but didn’t dissuade her big smile. “So?” Morgana prompted. “Yay or nay on Emrys? Hot or not?”

Merlin wanted to die of humiliation. Why? What had he done to deserve this? “Um…” What was a polite way of saying _hell no I’m not attracted to my own alter ego_ without revealing the alter ego bit? “Not really. Um, not. Nay?”

Arthur relaxed. Oh, fuck, had Merlin just given him more evidence?

“Not your type either?” Morgana asked, taking a dainty bite of salad.

“I guess not, no,” Merlin mumbled.

Gwen, being the evil traitor of a best friend she was, asked, “What is your type?”

Merlin froze, turning bright red. Arthur choked on his drink. “My type?” he squeaked.

“Yes, do tell, Merlin,” Morgana said, pinning him with a sharp, green, highly amused gaze.

Arthur was giving him that intense look again, which really didn’t make sense at the moment but it was kind of making his mind go a bit fuzzy. He reached for an answer that wasn’t _the blond prat sitting across the table from me_. Who else did he like? Um. “Professor Nim,” he blurted.

Morgana and Gwen shot him annoyed looks. Arthur glared moodily down at his food, stabbing at it aggressively. Merlin had the feeling he was missing something here.

“What?”

“How about for men?” Morgana said, her glare warning him there was a right answer to this question and he’d better give it or else.

The problem with this was that Merlin didn’t know what the answer that wouldn’t get him elegantly butchered with a bedazzled and no doubt expensive dagger was. Did people have a separate type for men and women usually? “Um.”

“You like muscles, don’t you, Merlin?” Gwen prompted. Merlin shot her a betrayed look.

“Does the blue eyes thing carry?” Morgana asked.

Merlin felt himself flush to the tips of his ears. “Uh.”

“Do you like blonds?”

“Maybe?”

Arthur stood up abruptly. “I’m done.” He stalked away to the trash, head bowed. Merlin looked from Gwen to Morgana and back.

“What’s his problem?”

Morgana shook her head wonderingly. “I’ll go fetch him, do you guys mind cleaning up?”

“Not at all,” Gwen said.

Merlin stared at Gwen, mystified. “Seriously, what happened?”

Gwen laughed softly and said, “Oh, Merlin.”

* * *

“Would you want to…” Merlin stared, baffled by the intense look Arthur was giving him. “Do you want to go see the light display? With me?”

O… kay? “Sure.” Arthur breathed out, relaxing. What was there to be anxious about? The four of them did stuff together all the time. “When should we meet you?”

Arthur frowned at him, looking a little bit devastated. “We?”

“Yeah, we,” Merlin said slowly. “Y’know, me and Gwen. Where will you and Morgana be?”

“Of course,” Arthur muttered, scrubbing a hand down his face. “With Morgana and Gwen.”

Merlin was so confused. “Yeah.”

“Um.” Arthur wasn’t meeting his eyes, and Merlin had the nagging suspicion he’d missed something. “I don’t-- I have to talk to Morgana about it, but like, 7 maybe?”

“Sounds good!” Merlin said brightly. Arthur seemed oddly unenthusiastic about this outing he’d proposed. Never happy, was he?

“Yeah, I’ll just--” Arthur blew out a breath, staring at the ground. “Yeah.”

And then he walked away, leaving a very bemused Merlin in his wake.

The lights they saw that night were very pretty, but there was an abundance of couples, which made it even more odd that Arthur had wanted the four of them to go. Arthur seemed glum the entire time, and Morgana spent the night alternately being flirty with Gwen and glaring at Merlin.

When Merlin asked Gwen about it later, she threw her hands up and told him he was an oblivious idiot.

Very helpful, that. Not.

* * *

Merlin slipped in and out of consciousness, head propped up by his hand, as the sub droned on and on and _on_. Professor Nim was absent, unfortunately, which meant a whole class of period of _this_.

It was horrible.

Even Arthur seemed to be zoning out. Morgana had gone to sleep about 10 minutes into class. Gwen was doing work for another class entirely, earbuds in and humming along to her music faintly. Merlin had really, really tried to stay focused. Art was one of his favorite classes, after all. But _god_ was this boring.

When Merlin started hearing sleighbells, he assumed he’d finally managed to fall asleep, but then he realized his face was a heck of a lot colder than it’d been a minute ago. He opened his eyes and found himself in a snowy field, the sky colored with improbable swirls of purple and pink. He backed up in shock and quickly ran into something solid and warm.

“What the heck?”

Merlin turned and found Arthur staring back at him, eyes wide with shock.

Okay, so this was new.

Somehow, Merlin wasn’t feeling as panicked as he by all rights should be. How could he, when where he was was so wonderful? Arthur, on the other hand, seemed to be having a full blown panic attack.

“Where are we? What happened? How the fuck did we--”

Merlin grabbed Arthur’s hand and squeezed. “Arthur, Arthur, calm down.”

“Calm down?!”

“Yes!” Seeing Arthur’s eyes still wide and his chest still heaving, he reached for Arthur’s upper arms. “Breathe for me, okay? In… out… in… out… good. We’re okay. We’re okay, I swear.”

Arthur blew out a long breath, eyes squeezed tight, and when he opened them again, he seemed more present. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” Merlin, realizing he was still gripping Arthur’s arms, let go and hastily backed away.

“Seriously, where are we?”

Merlin looked around, considering. He briefly wondered why he hadn’t thought to ask earlier, but the thought shimmered away as quick as it had come. “I don’t know. Nice, though, isn’t it?”

“I think the fact that we seemingly teleported from our classroom supersedes any niceness of the place,” Arthur said dryly.

“What?” Merlin wrinkled his nose. “Stop talking like that! C’mon, look, there’s candy over here.”

“Merlin, I really don’t think--”

Merlin held a finger to Arthur’s lips and gave him a slightly manic grin. “Shh.”

Arthur gulped and said, “Um, okay then.”

Merlin kept his finger there for a moment, enjoying feeling Arthur’s mouth move against it, but when Arthur cleared his throat loudly, bright red, he reluctantly dropped it. He grabbed Arthur’s hand instead and dragged him over to what he’d seen.

Arthur took in the forest of peppermint and gumdrops with a furrowed brow, looking much less excited than Merlin felt he should be. “What is this place?”

Merlin laughed and said, “Who cares?” then scooped up a handful of snow to throw at Arthur.

Arthur’s outrage face covered in snow was the cutest thing Merlin had ever seen. “Hey!” 

Merlin got a snowball to the face in return and laughed in delight. He licked his lips, making eye contact with Arthur as he did, then paused, head tilting. “Is that sugar?”

“Don’t eat it!” Arthur protested, aggrieved. Merlin held out a handful for Arthur to try, and Arthur batted it away with a scowl. “No! Don’t eat anything from here! We have to figure out what’s going on!”

Merlin frowned at him. What _was_ going on? A thought hovered just out of reach, drowned out by, “We’re having fun, that’s what’s going on. Don’t be a spoilsport.”

“You don’t think this is weird?” Arthur punctuated this question with a wild gesture to everything around them. “Five minutes ago we were sitting in Professor Nim’s classroom, listening to that boring sub.”

“Thank god we’re out of there, right?”

Arthur did not share Merlin’s enthusiasm. “Why are you not questioning this?”

“This place is good!” Merlin protested. “I can feel it!”

Arthur gave him a discerning look, and said, “Yeah, well I can’t.”

That was because Merlin was Emrys and clearly more sensitive and attuned to magic, but he had enough sense to not point this out to Arthur. “Maybe you just aren’t open enough.”

“I don’t know that I want to be open to this,” Arthur muttered. He was eying the candy cane forest like it was about to attack him, which was clearly ridiculous.

“Will you please just relax?”

“God, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I wish Emrys were here,” Arthur said under his breath, running a hand through his hair.

Merlin grasped for that name. It was familiar, he knew it was… “Who?”

Arthur looked well and truly freaked out now. “Merlin,” he said carefully. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

“The snowball fight, silly.”

“No, before that!”

Merlin blinked at Arthur, baffled. “What do you mean, before?”

Arthur pinched his nose and said, “Oh, fuck.”

“What? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, Merlin,” Arthur growled, stomping around the forest. “Everything is peachy and sugary and nothing is wrong.”

But that was true! Why did Arthur sound so sarcastic?

Arthur cursed under his breath, clearly searching for something, but what could he be searching for? They had everything they needed already! Arthur bent down, picking something up, and thrust it in Merlin’s face. “Do you know what this is?”

Merlin stared at the snowglobe he’d have sworn didn’t exist a second ago. It radiated an energy of… something, and the world around him didn’t feel quite so comforting. He hesitantly reached out to touch, and the minute it came in contact with his hands, the world faded in a flash of blinding light, and Merlin was waking up at his desk, a clear blue sphere engraved with the High Priestess’s mark clenched in his fist.

Arthur was sitting straight up, looking at Merlin in panic, but everyone else was sound asleep, even the sub, who’d been standing at the board when the Afanc (for that’s what it must have been) struck. Merlin shook Gwen’s shoulder, murmuring, “Gwen, wake up, c’mon,” but to no avail. Gwen stayed unconscious and snoring in that soft way she had on her desk.

“No luck?” Arthur asked grimly, and Merlin saw that he’d tried to wake up Morgana and the students around him with about as much success as Merlin.

Merlin shook his head, eyes fixed on Gwen’s curly hair, and slipped the token in his pocket as subtly as he could. He’d need to be Emrys to neutralize it properly. “Arthur…”

“Hmm?”

“Thank you.” Merlin finally looked away from Gwen and met Arthur’s eyes. “For breaking me out of… whatever that was.”

“I just wish Emrys would hurry it up,” Arthur said. He looked like maybe he was trying to be disapproving, but mostly he just looked scared.

“Me too.” The token bit into Merlin’s hand where he gripped it. “Should we look to see if anyone else is awake?”

“Probably. How did we…”

“Get out?” Merlin shrugged, guilt burning up his throat. “No clue. But if we got out, maybe someone else did too.”

“Okay.” Arthur blew out a breath, staring off into space before pulling himself back into focus. “Okay. Where do you want to start?”

“I go left, you go right?”

Arthur frowned at him and Merlin pasted on a grin. “We can’t split up.”

“It’ll be faster that way,” Merlin pointed out, praying Arthur went along with it.

Arthur clearly wasn’t happy with it, but he relented, and split up they did. As soon as Merlin was around the corner, he pressed a palm to the mark on his chest, burning at the sting of it. Killy wasn’t awake, and this was the only way he knew how to transform on his own. It _hurt_ , and he wasn’t dressed as he usually was with Killy’s assistance (and clear projection; his suit was very dragon themed), but power flowed freely through his veins, and he could feel his eyes burning a telltale gold.

The token in his hand _burned_ , and when he opened his hand, the High Priestess’s mark had been replaced by the mark on his chest, three spirals meeting in the middle. He was pretty sure Gaius called it a triskelion. Reality rippled around him as it returned to normal, and he heard the sound of voices distantly.

Merlin slumped in relief, letting go of the transformation, then looked at the token. He’d have to ask Killy about that later.

But first, Gwen. First, Morgana. First, Arthur. First, his friends.

Emrys could wait a moment for Merlin to pull himself back together.

When he returned to the classroom, Gwen threw her arms around him and Merlin melted into her. Morgana gave him a smile that lacked her usual edge over Gwen’s shoulder, a comforting hand on Gwen’s back. Arthur burst into the room shortly after and visibly slumped when he saw the three of them.

The smile he gifted Merlin with then, relieved, wide, and honest, was beautiful, and a warm buzz filled Merlin’s chest as he smiled back.

As it happened, no one else remembered what had happened when they were asleep. Arthur cornered Merlin outside after, everyone let go for the day in light of everything, and they sat quietly for a moment, side by side on a bench.

Arthur bumped Merlin’s shoulder with his. “You okay?”

Merlin sighed leaning as much as he dared into the warm contact. “I don’t know. Probably. It’s just… my memories are so jumbled. Looking back, I can’t figure out why I didn’t know something was wrong.”

“Don’t ponder it too hard,” Arthur murmured. “It turned out okay, didn’t it? Emrys fixed it.” _You fixed it._

“Yeah.” Merlin stared up at the sky, watching the snow fall, intensely aware of the warm line pressed into his arm. “I suppose he did. You got us out of there, though.”

“And you calmed me down at the beginning.” Arthur pushed his shoulder a little. “Thank you for that, by the way.”

Merlin huffed a laugh. “I barely even remember it.”

“But you did it.” Arthur gave him a look so full of warm affection Merlin wanted to bottle it and take a swig for courage whenever being Emrys felt like too much. “I couldn’t have gotten out of there without you, either.”

Merlin slumped into Arthur, head resting on Arthur’s shoulder, and closed his eyes. Arthur put a hand on the bench behind Merlin, not quite wrapped around him, and they sat like that for quite some time as the snow fell around them.

* * *

With a couple more Afancs defeated (a blizzard: scary; and Santa’s sleigh: decidedly not scary, though surprisingly dangerous all the same), a mountain of work somehow completed, and Arthur seemingly getting more determined, break _finally_ arrived.

Merlin stood in the snow, reveling his newfound freedom from school until they returned in January, when Arthur caught his attention with a clearing of his throat.

Merlin grinned. “Oh! Arthur, hey! Isn’t it beautiful?”

“Yeah,” Arthur breathed. He was looking quite flushed from the cold. “It is. Um, you’ve got…” 

“Hmm?”

“Snow,” Arthur said, reaching up a hand as if to touch then dropping it. “In your hair. And your eyelashes.”

“Oh.” Merlin blinked and wrinkled his nose at the cold wetness on his cheeks. There was a choking noise from Arthur’s direction, and he turned to Arthur. “Are you alright?”

“What?” Arthur’s voice had gone remarkably high pitched, and his face was definitely getting redder.

Merlin frowned. “You don’t have a fever, do you? You’re looking awfully flushed.”

Arthur huffed a breathless laugh. “Um, no, I’m fine. Hey, Merlin, I was wondering, would you… would you…” 

“Yeah?” Since when did Arthur stutter?

“Would you want to go out with me when we get back from break?” he said in a rush.

“Sure,” Merlin said, bemused. “We should definitely get together with Gwen and Morgana, where do you want to go?”

Another slightly hysterical laugh. “For someone so smart, you can be so stupid, you know that?” Merlin frowned, offended. “I’ve been trying to ask you out all month.”

“But we’ve… been going out?”

“On a date, Merlin,” Arthur said exasperatedly. “I’m trying to ask you out on a date.”

That was… what? Merlin stood gobsmacked as his brain tried to fit this new piece of information into the existing puzzle. Arthur? Ask out?? Merlin??? Date????

“You really didn’t know.” Arthur ran a hand through his hair, eyes a little crazed. “I’ve been over here losing my mind because of you and you didn’t even notice.”

Merlin froze, unable to come up with anything to say. This… complicated things.

When the silence had dragged on long enough that it was clear Merlin wasn’t going to respond, Arthur sighed, looking too small and vulnerable for Merlin’s tastes. “I take it the answer is no, then. I should have never… never mind, I’m--”

“No!” Merlin blurted.

“...No?”

Oh, fuck. “Um,” Merlin stammered out. “It’s-- I can’t--” _put you in danger or hurt you by blowing you off because I have to be Emrys._

“It’s okay,” Arthur said, flashing Merlin an unconvincing smile. “I understand.” 

“No, I’d love to, really, it’s just…”

“You don’t like me.”

Merlin winced. “It’s not that, I swear! There’s something I can’t explain, and it means I can’t, right now, but it’s not because I don’t like you! Because I do!” In a smaller voice, he said, “A lot.”

Arthur gave him a sad sort of smile and pressed a kiss to his cheek that warmed Merlin to his toes. His face felt like it was burning.

“Well, I’m here. Whenever that thing of yours is no longer an issue, if you still want me.”

Dammit, dammit, dammit, Merlin was so gone on this boy it wasn’t even funny. “I will.”

“You can’t be sure of that,” Arthur said, half laughing, but not quite hitting the mark of genuinely amused. And curse the High Priestess for making Merlin need to say no to this brilliant, gorgeous boy.

“I am,” Merlin said, and curled his fingers into Arthur’s jacket to pull him in for a quick kiss. On the lips, this time. And if the other kiss had warmed him up, it was nothing compared to this one. A bubbling, giddy fountain of warmth had sprung to life in his chest, and he felt like he’d never be cold again. “I promise.”

“Okay,” Arthur said, voice wobbling a little bit. “Okay. Um, I’ll. I’ll see you after break?”

“Definitely.” Merlin grinned, and for a moment, he didn’t feel the weight of the world on his shoulders. He moved away, but he grabbed Arthur’s hand and squeezed once, twice, three times. “See you, Pendragon.”

“Can’t wait.”

Neither could Merlin.

Merlin arrived home humming and with a spring in his step.

“You seem happy today,” his mum said, eyebrows raised.

“Yeah,” Merlin said, brushing a kiss on her cheek before skipping his way to his room. Arthur’s face danced through his mind, and he grinned so hard his cheeks hurt. “I really, really am.”

* * *

(Sometime in the not so distant future, the High Priestess Nimueh was locked away by the chosen warrior Emrys and his Golden King. Arthur cast his sword aside, Merlin shed the guise of Emrys one last time, and they ran to each other. Finally, _finally_. 

They had plenty of time to make up for that which was lost at the hands of fate, after all.)

**Author's Note:**

> Well, at the hands of fate and also their combined sheer dumbassery. 
> 
> For the record, I imagine that Arthur learned about Merlin being Emrys right when they learned Arthur was essential to defeating Nimueh and needed to battle her before she destroyed the world or unleashed other malicious persons, so their time for relationship talk was nonexistent. They'll still have stuff to work out, obviously, but alive! Hurrah!
> 
> Thank you for taking this journey into the depths of my childhood television preferences with me, it's been a lot of fun.


End file.
